The Pride flag will fly in Bradford West Gwillimbury in August as part of the eighth annual Fierté Simcoe Pride Week.
It is one of two Simcoe Pride events planned in the community for this year. A social event for the region is also in the works, and more details will be on the organization's website soon, said Fierté Simcoe Pride President Brandon Rhéal Amyot.
Other local events also took place throughout Pride Month in June, such as Drag Queen Storytime and an LGBTQ+ social night that included painting doors that were hung in the BWG Public Library.
The flag raising will take place Aug. 1 at 1:30 p.m. outside the BWG Courthouse at 57 Holland St. E. in downtown Bradford. The Pride flag has been raised in town since before Fierté Simcoe Pride even existed.
Last year, the Town of BWG was nominated for Community of the Year in the Simcoe County Pride Awards for its longstanding inclusivity of the LGBTQ+ population through library programming, BWG Diversity Action Group events, and more.
There will also be Pride flag raisings in other communities around Simcoe County, including Innisfil on July 22 — the first event of the Pride week — at 2101 Innisfil Beach Rd., co-hosted with Innisfil Pride.
A pre-Pride dance and show will also help kick off the week's events on July 25 at The Brownstone in Orillia.
“Our hope is we can make this a more regular event, maybe quarterly,” said Amyot.
The 19-plus event will begin at 9 p.m. The soundtrack to the night will feature popular music from LGBTQ artists, but the main event is a drag show.
“We really want to focus on new and upcoming drag performers because Simcoe County has an up-and-coming drag community,” Amyot said.
The rainbow flag will again be raised in Orillia, this time on Aug. 6 at 11 a.m. at the Orillia Opera House.
“The Orillia Opera House is the site of a historic event in our local history,” Amyot said of the incident in the early 1980s, when the venue was raided and a number of men were arrested for gross indecency, and their names were published. “It’s important to talk about those things. They add context.”
For the fourth year, Orillia will host the Trans Pride March on Aug. 8. It will start with a rally at Veterans’ Memorial Park at 6 p.m. Participants will then march to the pavilion in Couchiching Beach Park, where there will be a free picnic with food donated by Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH).
“OSMH is an important fixture in the LGBTQ community,” Amyot said, noting the hospital flies a rainbow flag year-round and also has an LGBTQ committee.
While there are plenty of events happening in Orillia, Fierté Simcoe Pride is trying to reach all corners of the county. Flag raisings have been confirmed in almost all of the county’s municipalities.
A Pride Prom will take place Aug. 2 at the Sheba Shrine Club in Barrie. There will be two proms — one for those younger than 19 at 7 p.m. and a 19-plus event starting at 9:30. Tickets are required for that event, as well as for the Simcoe County Pride Awards Gala, which will return for a fifth year Aug. 10 at CFB Borden. Tickets for the gala are being sold until July 28.
“It’s about giving people the Pride prom of their dreams that they might not have been able to have at their school,” Amyot said.
The week of celebration will culminate Aug. 11 in Barrie, with a Pride Festival at Meridian Place from noon to 10 p.m.
Fierté Simcoe Pride is encouraging businesses and organizations to display Pride colours during the week to show their support, as “the rainbow is a really important symbol for a lot of people,” Amyot said.
To find out more about Fierté Simcoe Pride Week, including ticket information, click here.
With files from Jenni Dunning